“A Catastrophic Sequence of Mistakes” –

«The investigated neuroradiologists incorrectly reported the MRI examination of May 8, 2023 due to incompetence and imprudence and those of June 6 and July 8 due to incompetence. The cardiologist Laudani carried out insufficient diagnostic investigations» and in particular there was a «catastrophic series of errors and omissions». This is what can be read in the conclusions of the forensic medical report ordered last March, as part of an evidentiary incident, to establish the causes of death of the journalist Andrea Purgatori, who died in July 2023. In the proceedings, four doctors are being investigated on charges of manslaughter, the radiologist Gianfranco Gualdi, his assistant Claudio Di Biasi and Dr. Maria Chiara Colaiacomo, both members of his team, and the cardiologist Guido Laudani.

In reference to the latter, the experts highlight that “he incorrectly interpreted the results of the Holter examination, reaching the conclusion that the multi-organ embolization was a consequence of atrial fibrillation. Furthermore, he did not adequately evaluate the clinical picture and the effects of the anticoagulant therapy he had set up. These are behaviors that we can define as inadequate from the point of view of the expertise” it is written. Regarding the hospitalization in July 2023, the experts write that Purgatori “was apparently discharged without seeing the results of a blood sample taken on day 19, where severe anemia was detected that would have contraindicated discharge. An anemia due to the catastrophic sequence of errors and omissions starting, for this aspect, from the incorrect diagnosis of atrial fibrillation, with consequent anticoagulant therapy that proved potentially fatal and in fact contraindicated in endocarditis, and with total obscuring of the overall clinical context”.

According to the experts, a correct diagnostic-therapeutic treatment would have allowed the patient Purgatori a longer survival period than what actually occurred. Scientific literature considers the 1-year survival rate to be 80% if the endocarditis is promptly and adequately treated. According to the conclusions of the expert report, the endocarditis, which was the cause of Purgatori’s death, “could have been identified more promptly, at least at the beginning of the hospitalization from 10 to 23 June 2023, or even earlier, in the second age of May 2023 if the neuroradiologists had correctly evaluated the outcome of the tests carried out on 8 May. “